Ch. vil south AMERICA. 283 



or two after that of another, though their distance is 

 not more than three or four leagiiesj and the time for 

 another at die same distance not then anived. T(íüs, 

 in different spots, somecimes in one and the same, sow- 

 ing and leaping are pci formed throughout the whole 

 year, the forwardness or retardment naturaiiy arising 

 from the differenc situations, as mountains, rising 

 grounds, plains, valievs, and breaches; and the tem- 

 perature oeing different in each of these, the cicles 

 for performing the several operations of husbandr/ 

 must also differ. Nor is this any contradiction to 

 what 1 have before advanced, as wiii be seen in the 

 following account of the jurisdiction. 



This remarkable fecundity of the soil is naturally 

 productive of excellent fruits and corn of every kind, 

 as is evident from the delicacy of the beef, veal, mut- 

 ton, pork, and poultry oiQuito. Here is also wheat 

 bread in sufficient plenty -, but the fault is, that the 

 Indian women, whose business it is to make it^ are 

 ignorant of the best methods both of kneading and 

 baking it; for the wheat of itseii is excellent, and the 

 bread baked in private houses equal to any in the 

 known world. The beef, which is not inferior to 

 that of Europe, is sold in the markets by the quarter 

 of the. hundred for four rials of that country money, 

 and the buyer iias the liberty of choosing what part 

 he pleases. Mutton is sold either by the half or 

 quarter of a sheep ; and when fat, and in its prime, 

 the whole carcase is worth about five or six rials. 

 Other species of provisions are sold by the lump, 

 without weight or measure? and the price regulated 

 by custom. 



The only commodity of which there is here any 

 scarcity is pulse ; but this deficiency is supplied by 

 roots, the principal of v/hich are the camates, aruca- 

 chas, yucas, ocas, and papas ; the three former are 

 the natives of hot countries, and cultivated in the plan- 

 tations of sugar canes, and such spots- are called val* 



iesj 



